SGER: Preliminary Investigation of Selective Volumetric Sintering of Powder Metallurgy Parts Using Microwaves

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The objective of this SGER research is the preliminary investigation of Selective Volumetric Sintering (SVS) of powder metallurgy parts using microwaves. The physical phenomenon that enables SVS is the heating due to dielectric loss when metal powders are subjected to microwaves. The heat generated is proportional to the square of the electric field strength at the spatial location. The approach is to use phase array antennae to selectively concentrate electric field within a volume of metal powder to directly sinter in place complex three-dimensional patterns. The proposed research will investigate the combined Electromagnetic-Heat transfer problem to develop methods for precise shape control of the sintered shape. Current Solid Free From (SFF) manufacturing techniques are limited to manufacturing one-off prototypes because of the high unit part manufacturing time resulting from the two-dimensional layered nature of these processes. If successful, this research will lead to a radically new manufacturing process that will be able to take advantage of the three dimensional spatial distribution of material in a component to drastically reduce unit part manufacturing time. While retaining the re-configurability and shape creation ability of traditional SFF processes, the new process will have the throughput of traditional mass production techniques, thus enabling mass customization manufacturing. Advanced Discovery and Learning will be addressed through the participation of both graduate and undergraduate students in this research, dissemination in courses and through publications in journals and conference proceedings. Benefits to society will be addressed through the relationship of this work to Sustainable Manufacturing and maintaining American's technological edge in manufacturing.